Striving for achievement, competitiveness, and the desire to be first are stamped in us as a society from times bygone. This is doubly true in these days, living as we do in a cruel, crazed world which has lost all patience and forgiveness toward those who lag behind.
At first, before the digital revolution stormed in on us, she knocked softly on the door of Photography World, begging to enter, offering magic and miracles. As this looked suspicious, she was carefully allowed in by the back door, and only on condition that she would not interfere with our tranquil routine of life. Who would have thought that since that day she would take control of our house, revolutionize our old habits, and change all our life? What are two hundred years of photography in human history? It is only yesterday that humanity was being photographed in black and white and the world stood in awe, called wow!!! Got excited, laughed, shed tears, and there, today, there are those who want to "format" it all out of our memory with a push of a button. At times it seems to me that we are drawing near to a time of final, collective photographic suicide, typified by the pursuit of Pixel, the worship of the Sensor, and the offering innocent sacrifices to various Photography Sites.
The photography era as we knew it is nearing its end. In its last convolutions it is still striving to deny the new reality, and to insist on its undiminished vitality for the sake of the coming generations. The loyal faithful practitioners of film/B&W photography vehemently refuse to forget the times when the word "photography" had a different meaning. "Today one can make children in the test tube" one of them says to me grinning "but I rather like making them myself", thus summing up the birth of the new era, in which metamorphosis he feels he has no part. It is the end of the time of the larva; it has nothing new to contribute. The pupa too is losing patience; something new is cooking inside it. There are rumors about something new coming out, a thing of ravishing beauty, rich in color, jumping with ease and easily intoxicating. Alas, how sad its life will be short, too shot!
Well, what more awaits us beyond the corner?

Although from an evolutionary point of view gaps between man and apes are widening with time, as far as the world of photography is concerned they seem to be narrowing.
"ALL OF A SUDDEN A MAN GETS UP IN THE MORNING AND FEELS HE IS A PHOTOGRAPHER…"
And then begins a prolonged, and tiring, sadomasochistic search for the "perfect camera": You knock down several photography sites, you wear out a couple of search engines, until they need an overhaul, you lose three friends who got fed up with you, you call your Pinscher "Pixel", you make the camera prices -comparison site your home -page, and lastly, your access to several member forums is blocked for becoming the top serial nudnik (nagger) with that endless question" what camera should I buy ?"
When three months of preliminary research come to an end, and another two weeks of sleepless wait for the announcement of the last model in the new, improved, and sophisticated series, "Yohanan 5" have passed, you start out, all on fire, resolved to be first to take advantage of the bargain deal you have found. You are resolved to get there; it is the deal of your life! The engine of a Boeing 747 are a child's game comparing to the price comparison engine, which shot you there, to that small shop in that little solitary village, because you could get there "the camera" for an euro and a half less than at that over charger's shop next to your home.
Your taxi hurries on the way back (everything has been planned: "one does not drive when one is buying a camera"), you hug your new camera all the way back, the pictures you and Yohanan 5 will soon take run in your head. "With Pinhas 3 I could never get that quality" you think to yourself, smiling contentedly.
It is almost midnight when you are back home. Poor Pixel has not been let out all day. You take it out for a 1/125 of a second and come back running for the tripod. "Tonight I must take photographs of the sun setting!" you think. It is almost midnight, but no matter, Yohanan 5 can bring back the sun with its ISO Million function.
Well, from that day on the sand clock has reversed: Let us see how long it will take before Yohanan 5's price will start going down. You never let go; you go on checking the prices to make sure you have not come out a sucker. And then, all of a sudden it happens: in a sell/buy forum you discover the following add: "For sell a Yohanan 5, original box, as good as new. Reason: Upgrading". The little prick you feel in your left side is not because of the price (30% less than the price you paid the other day), it is because of the word "Upgrading". "What the heck is he upgrading to!?" you ask yourself.¬¬¬¬
A prompt search in the first photography site makes you emit a shout that burns four pixels of the very sensitive sensor of your Yohanan 5; in the home page of that site there is a huge, irritating banner inviting you the launching party of "Yohanan 5.5"...
"What to do now? Should I start reading the instructions booklet, and stay with Yohanan 5 for a couple of years, or should I rather sell it right away and upgrade?" You ask yourself. The sandglass has turned into a water clock and the price is going down at the rate of one dollar an hour!!
You decide to stay with your camera, "no need to overdo things", you think, and you start playing with the buttons you have never before known. You start with page no.1. At page 4 you have already lost your concentration. You feel heat waves coming up your body, and soon heavy drops of sweat are dripping on Yohanan 5's three-inch screen and are nibbling at the very foundations of your relationships. "If the new model has a screen wiper, we will say good bye, my friend" you say.
Curiosity about the new, upgraded model never lets go and you pick up the phone and start questioning your forum-crony.
You: Hello mate, why are you selling? The flag ship of all times, no?
Seller: What ship? Hardly a rubber boat with a white flag! The new model in comparison is an aircraft carrier!
You: Really? What does she have?
Seller: Full Frame! Each picture - a torpedo!
You: So why did you buy it, then?
Seller: I had to upgrade because of the noise; with the old one each picture looked like a color -blindness test.
You: Say, how many clicks she has done?
Seller: Nothing at all, hardly 10,000. I bought her yesterday and photographed only one sunset. I uploaded the 300 best ones to our site, the rest I spread in various sites abroad. Let them learn a bit! Apart from this I heard a rumor that the Yohanan 7 is coming out soon and that it is going to have far reaching improvements worth waiting for even a whole month!
You: Wow! Really!? What? What? Spill it out!
Seller: One of them is a new backup system, which will keep your pictures forever. For example, when you click on the delete button the camera will ask you into which site and even category you would like to erase the pictures.
Another new system is called "The Big Brother" and it connects the camera, through satellite, to all security cameras, in any street corner in your town/city. Using this we will be able to capture all street situations on- line, 24 hours a day, without having to ask permission, and without leaving home.
Well, the game is over; for one day you were a king, and now you have been cornered, whatever move you make, you have been had!!!
How can you go on living, feeling as you do that others have what you will never possess? Had you been Japanese, this is the moment you would have taken the sword off the wall; however you don't have the courage to put an end to all that madness. You decide, therefore, that immediately at the end of 30 days (you had been blocked, remember?) you will put a "sell" add at the forum. But what to do in the meantime? You feel that each click you will make will cost you at least a euro. Well, there is no other choice; it is time to look for "Pinhas 3", your film camera from the last century. You smile to yourself "I wonder whether it is still working?" You find it with a kit lens and ask yourself "with this I took pictures all those years?" "Well in those years "kit lens" was not a word of scorn". Actually, it never let you down, it was always there for you, and you did your best work with it. Your father's words come to your mind: "Talent will bring you money, but money will never buy you talent".
Nostalgic thoughts flood you while you are trying to focus on a blurred image at the end of the room. Another turn, and there you have it all clear in focus: "Pixel!" Is it you? It is all your fault!! A microscopic creature, you, you have managed to ruin a whole culture that existed here for two hundred years, you and your friends that multiply like rabbits, duplicate yourselves every three months, and each time succeed to convince us that we need all of you.
The arm's race is at its peak, its purpose is strategic: maintaining deterrence potential! In the background the prophet's voice is thundering: "The Film is dead, long live the Pixel!" You know that the battle will be decided in the built-up area- one on one, face to face.